TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
5x06 Episode 6

Line of Duty
1x04 Episode 4

TV

Line of Duty
1x03 Episode 3

Luke Cage
1x07 Manifest
1x08 Blowin' Up the Spot

TV

Castle
6x19 The Greater Good

Line of Duty
1x02 Episode 2

Luke Cage
1x05 Just to Get a Rep
1x06 Suckas Need Bodyguards

Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs
5x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on the ITV Hub.]

TV

Line of Duty
1x01 Episode 1

Luke Cage
1x03 Who's Gonna Take the Weight?
1x04 Step in the Arena

Red Dwarf
11x02 Samsara
Has it really been four years since Series X? Where does time go?! Anyway, I accidentally left it too long to see episode 1 on catch-up, but I get the impression watching them out of order doesn't matter, so I'll find it later.

Collection Count

Collection Count tracks my DVD/Blu-ray collection via a number of statistics every week.

I'm a couple of days late this week because it's time for the mega monthly running time update, and I'd got behind on keeping track of said running times. It's all good now, though, so here we go:

Number of titles in collection: 1,892 [up 2]
Of which DVDs: 1,204 [no change]
Of which Blu-rays: 690 [up 2]

Number of discs in collection: 4,891 [up 10]
Number of films in collection: 2,084 [no change]
Number of TV episodes in collection: 7,512 [up 64]
Number of short films in collection: 473 [no change]

Total running time of collection (approx.):
360 days, 16 hours, and 55 minutes.
(Up 2 days, 21 hours, and 33 minutes from last month.)

See you next week, faithful reader.

TV

Castle
6x18 The Way of the Ninja

Would I Lie To You?
10x04 Episode 4
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

this week on 100 Films

2016 entered its final quarter this week, which meant it was yet again time for 100 Films in a Year to reflect on the past month...




Additionally, 4 brand-new reviews were published this week...


High-Rise (2015)

I was looking forward to this sci-fi-ish ’70s social satire, but, having let it percolate for a few months, I still have no real grasp of what it was about. I mean, it’s obviously about society, but what its point about society is… I have no idea.

Read more here.


Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

A story of young love, Wes Anderson style, the writer-director has described Moonrise Kingdom as “an autobiography about something that didn’t happen”. That feels like a good way to regard the film. There’s clearly an emotional truth to Sam and Suzy’s discontented lives and their desire to connect with a like-minded individual, especially at an age when romantic feelings are beginning to emerge; but there’s no way the rest of the events — which unfold with Anderson’s typical almost-real / almost-fantastical quirkiness — actually happened.

Read more here.


Rushmore (1998)

Having only seen Anderson’s three most recent films, it’s interesting to observe the early days of his distinctive style. The squared-off framing and blocking, the mannered acting, the interludes and asides, the not-quite-real / not-quite-fantasy quirkiness of it all… These things have only become more pronounced since, presumably as Anderson has become more confident in his own voice, or possibly as other behind-the-scenes forces have become more comfortable letting him do his thing.

Read more here.


Spotlight (2015)

As a film, this story is effectively a conspiracy thriller: a team of journalists expose a wide-reaching criminal cover-up within a respected and powerful institution. If it were fiction, you’d struggle to believe it, the scale of the conspiracy so vast that the very notion of it would be implausible. So it’s all the more astonishing — and horrifying — that it was real.

Read more here.


Finally, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

The outré style belies an underlying cleverness, with witty writing that features abundant references to sci-fi B-movie classics, precisely pitched performances, and, of course, the unforgettable toe-tapping tunes. Whether alone or in a packed auditorium throwing stuff and shouting back at the screen, it’s just fun. To watch it is to, indeed, give yourself over to absolute pleasure.

Read more here.


Romeo + Juliet (1996)

I alluded to critics’ dismissal of this adaptation — here are some choice quotes: “the kind of violent swank-trash music video that may make you feel like reaching for the remote”; “a classic play thrown in the path of a subway train”; “destined for the trash heap of Shakespeare adaptations”; “a monumental disaster.” I’d argue its subsequent, and largely enduring, success has put those old fuddy-duddies on the wrong side of history.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Castle
6x16 Room 147
6x17 In the Belly of the Beast

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x06 Episode 6
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Luke Cage
1x01 Moment of Truth
1x02 Code of the Streets

Films

The Nice Guys (2016)
[#156 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
[#157 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Duck Quacks Don't Echo
5x05 Episode 5

The Great British Bake Off
7x06 Botanical Week
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Westworld (1973)
[#155 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

TV

Castle
6x15 Smells Like Teen Spirit

Films

The Saint's Return (1953)
[#154 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]
aka The Saint's Girl Friday

TV

The Musketeers
2x06 Through a Glass Darkly

TV

Castle
6x14 Dressed to Kill

Would I Lie To You?
10x03 Episode 3
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Films

Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
[2nd watch]

This was #1 in 100 Films 2012.

TV

Scott & Bailey
5x02 Episode 2
5x03 Episode 3 [series finale]

Films

Mr. Turner (2014)
[#153 in 100 Films in a Year 2016]

this week on 100 Films

5 brand-new reviews were published to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...


Badlands (1973)

"He was 25 years old. He combed his hair like James Dean. He was very fastidious. People who littered bothered him. She was 15. She took music lessons and could twirl a baton. She wasn’t very popular at school. For awhile they lived together in a tree house. In 1959, she watched while he killed a lot of people." As 60-word summaries go, that pretty fairly covers the characters, plot, and, to some degree, the film’s tone.

Read more here.


The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)

The artificially-extended Hunger Games trilogy-turned-tetralogy climaxes here. Presumably you’ve seen the first three and so know what you’re into by this point — either you’re invested or you’ve given up. Unless you want to know “does it end well?” before embarking on the whole thing, of course. While Mockingjay Part 2 is not the series’ finest instalment, it brings things to a decent head… eventually.

Read more here.


Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

the film wasn’t a success, either critically or commercially — despite casting a young, theoretically popular lead in Chris Pine, it didn’t attract the young audience needed to produce blockbuster numbers these days. I guess playing the “thriller” rather than “action” card didn’t pay off... I think the reaction has been unduly harsh, because Shadow Recruit is very effective at what it sets out to do, and is, in my view, easily the most entertaining Jack Ryan movie since at least the first

Read more here.


Magic in the Moonlight (2014)

the film is a romantic confection made up of sunny Côte d’Azur locations, pretty vintage costumes, gently witty dialogue, and quality actors gamely playing along. Colin Firth is hardly stretched as a romantic lead, but Stanley’s pompousness and sarcastic cynicism gives the role a little bite. Emma Stone’s big eyes do half the work for her, though she still gives it her all in a way that makes her character and performance endearing.

Read more here.


Ted 2 (2015)

The plot (about Ted trying to become a legally recognised person) exists to string together comedic set pieces. Perhaps that’s why the pace feels off: individual parts are funny, but it’s slow going.

Read more here.


Also, my 100 Favourites series continued with 2 more posts...


Road to Perdition (2002)

On the surface it’s a revenge thriller, replete with ’30s mob style and Tommy Gun massacres, but under that is a more emotive tale about masculinity as it pertains to the father/son dynamic. It’s all handled with sensitive artistry by director Sam Mendes, supported by first-rate technical merits across the board

Read more here.


The Rock (1996)

While it functions well in Bay’s familiar wheelhouse of adrenaline-pumping action-thriller, it’s elevated by a screenplay that offers dialogue which, at times, can be witty and/or intelligent; and, most importantly, which creates sympathetic characters on both sides of the conflict. There aren’t many actioners where you can say “the writing’s the best bit”, are there?

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

The Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice
3x05 Episode 5
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Scott & Bailey
5x01 Episode 1